When Donald Trump nominated Kash Patel to lead the FBI, everyone from Trump’s allies to Democrats on the Hill to former FBI officials warned that Patel was unfit for the job. Now, Patel is threatening our national security by forcing career law enforcement officers to take loyalty tests, not to the Constitution or the rule of law, but to Patel and Trump. Make no mistake, this isn’t about keeping America safe. It’s about politicizing our law enforcement agencies as Trump pushes to fulfill his fantasy of becoming a “dictator on ‘day one.’”

Here’s what people are saying about Kash Patel’s loyalty tests: 

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe: “It’s stunning and incredibly disappointing, and I would add concerning to that pile as well, because having spent 21 years in the FBI and served in every level an agent can serve, including acting director and Deputy Director, I can understand the kind of chaos and mistrust that these sort of decisions are probably sowing across the good people who work there. … So it’s deeply concerning to me, the chilling effect that this will have, particularly on FBI people in senior leadership positions, who now, instead of worrying about the FBI mission — protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution — they’re worried more about offending Kash Patel and Dan Bongino. … [T]o me, Kash Patel, this indicates a level of lack of confidence in his own leadership. And you know, the fact that he’s so focused on this and forcing people to take lie detector tests about it, I think is a really troubling sign of his discomfort in the role. If you can’t handle the fact that people are occasionally saying things that you wouldn’t like about you, you’re probably not ready for a role making the sort of decisions that you have to make every single day as FBI director.” 

Former FBI Counterterrorism Official Christopher O’Leary: “I think Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino are perhaps making a severe misstep here. They both already had a very steep hill to climb to get the trust and the confidence of FBI employees, and this step, using polygraphs, is certainly not going to really endear them to the workforce. The combination between asking for lists for the agents who worked January 6, dismissing senior level very trusted employees over – like James Dennehy, the Assistant Director of the New York office — over the Epstein cover up, which, you know, most FBI employees see right through that, and then, you know, certainly that’s using coercion and intimidation, instead of, you know, trying to motivate people and get their trust and confidence and inspire them to the mission of the FBI. This is really just the wrong approach.” 

Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina: “[T]he net effect is a dismantlement of a premier intelligence agency in the United States that has been very clear that they were not partisan in the past. They just did the job protecting the American people. And instead, what we’re doing is going towards authoritarianism. When you’re using the FBI to hunt down and create a culture of fear internally and go after people who might have said something bad about the appointed director of the FBI — Chris, how many people haven’t, at one point or another said something about their boss? We all have. And now we’re doing lie detectors to figure this out? This is exactly how countries slide into authoritarianism when you’re just worried about loyalty, and you’re using the federal intelligence agencies to crack down on your enemies, and you’re end up getting rid of a 40% of your workforce at a time when we have more terrorism and more kind of internal threats to this country. This is exactly the thing we shouldn’t be doing.” 

MSNBC Contributor Anthony Coley: “[W]hat Donald Trump wants from his Justice Department is blind obedience, right? They don’t want dissent, which is why they are ordering polygraph tests, not to see whether somebody broke the law or leaked sensitive national security information, about whether or not this guy had a gun, or requested to carry a service weapon. That’s what they are focused [on], it’s petty.” 

Former White House Director of Message Planning Meghan Hays: “It seems extremely unusual to me. I think law enforcement, especially federal law enforcement, should be non-political. They should be able to do a job for both Democrats and Republican administrations. You take an oath to the Constitution. You take an oath to serve the American people. You don’t take an oath to who the FBI director is. So it is very unusual in my experience.” 

###